What surprises me is that Elemental was even widely known enough to receive a nomination for most disappointing game of the year on a site like Gamespot.
Since I won't pay a company to beta their game, and I won't purchased broken buggy products that are missing advertised features, I couldn't vote for Elemental myself. It isn't going to "win" this dubious award though because the other titles on the list are huge and one of them trying so hard to recover from a terrible launch that Enix is still not charging monthly for it.
It sure was difficult deciding between Star Trek Online and FFXIV Online though. Star Trek left me bored and wanting. FFXIV is gorgeous but managed to annoy the living hell out of me to the point where I only beta'd it for a handful of days before I decided enough was enough, and that was free play.
Anyway, I don't put much stock into these kind of polls, usually unable to vote on most of them because my games are not on the list, but I found it interesting to see a game like Elemental make the list.
Edit: Apparently it did make Tom's list: http://fidgit.com/archives/2010/12/the_ten_most_disappointing_gam.php#more
Singularity? I liked that one very much.
You are a hero nesrie, your astute and valued posts help this comunity a lot.
That Tom's list is a fail.
Same, room for improvement but idk how they compared it to Bioshock
Oh speaking of Bioshock, how come the sequel didn't make the list
I can't speak for most of the games on toms list. However I do agree with his number 1. I don't agree with elemental being number 2 but thats probably because its hard to be disappointed when you come into a game with rather low expectations.
Remember the list is of most disappointing games.. not "worst games" or w.e. So its even more subjective than a best or worst list.
Exactly, worst games and most disappointing are not the same. Expectations for Civ V and Elemental were very high, same with FFXIV and STO. There is always risk with hyping games all over the internet and then delvering what these companies actually delivered.
FFXIV is also likely to win Gamespot's worst award. It's certainly running away with it in the PC area. That's quite possibly the worst MMO I've ever played. It's like they took every lesson learned by everyone in the genre since 2003 and decided to throw it all away.
On the upside, Square had to revise their income forecast for the year down 90%, so their repeated lousy releases this year is finally hitting the bottom line.
Yeah it's a "next gen" looking game that plays worse than the MMOs that were released in 2000-2001. It's probably even worse than that considering the console centric just weirdo control scheme that even those older games didn't have (well aside from FFXI>.
FFXI had the same problem though. The controls were rigid, awkward. Compared to the freedom of mobility in WoW and most other games, FFXI felt like the minute you started combat, a pair of giant magical hands grabbed you and told you were to move and stand. I hated, hated, hated that about the game. There were half a dozen other things about the game that drove me batty, not to mention how it managed to almost be grindier than fucking EVERQUEST.
So when I heard FFXIV was completely awkward and tedious, I wasn't surprised. Square has always considered themselves high-concept, but in the last 7 years, I think they've fallen in love with bad ideas and designs, and its shown in every major title they've put out. It's weird. I thought the Square/Enix merger, two of my favorite RPG companies, would propel them toward being the single biggest developer out there. Instead, it just kind of diluted all the things Square did that I liked. (Because Enix games were always sort of hit or miss.)
As for Elemental....I looked around when it released, and it didn't get much play in the media compared to other games. (No following patch developments, no second-looks.) Kind of surprised Gamespy even mentioned it.
I can't believe Elemental is not number one, to be honest. I had such incredible expectations of the game. Of course, it's hard to remember the expectations you had when you've played the beta for a long time and seen the game develop. But if I bought the game now with the expectations I had before trying it out or reading reviews, I'd be devastated.
Civ 5 would be number 2 for me, or Red Dead Redemption. Heavy Rain would be on the list as well, though it's already on the 'overrated' list.
The only games I've played from that list are Aliens Vs. Predator and Elemental. And I'd have to say on that basis, the list is accurate to me. I really like AvP actually. It just runs so freaking poorly, even AFTER an upgrade to boost my system to "better than average these days."
I mean, I love playing the Alien. I love running around as the predator. I even like being scared as a marine. But when the game sloshes through so many of the visuals, and the rest of game play isn't there (the collectibles are BS, the re-use of levels didn't bother me but pissed a lot of people off.) The MP, when you factor in the handling and the sort of asinine RPS style of melee combat, I couldn't drag people into it, or stay long myself. I was overjoyed to hear Gearbox picked up AvP, because there are few things the game did right, and that was the mobility and leaping on to dudes and stuff like that. The assassination kills are also so very, very graphic.
Calling Elemental a disappointment is warranted. The expectations were so high, and the game didn't surpass GCII Vanilla.
That said, Elemental has a chance to not be a disappointment down the road.
Civ V was a bigger disappointment though. Disciples 3 and Epic Mickey make no sense on that list- neither game had high expecations really.
There's a huge different between the PC-Centric Tom and console-centric Gamespot though.
http://fidgit.com/archives/2010/12/ten_games_you_should_have_play.php
Saw this list and cringed as I remember spending 3 bucks on a few of these through steam and feeling it was a waste of money...3 bucks, waste of money, wow. Especially Greed corp which felt like some super simplistic strategy void console game, so I looked it up and found out it was a port of course. I guess I should be happy it worked with keyboard + mouse
Now haven't played all of those and Darwinia was pretty ok. But others I do recognize I recommend steering clear of.
I agree, Civ 5 was a great disappointment for me, I cannot even force myself to play it.
FFXIV gorgeous?
I mean it's ok. But it's not gorgeous.
It's designed to look good on the low res PS3. It won't be 1080 on there - 720 at best. It's not on a par with say Far Cry2 (more elements on screen, better viewing distance, better physics, more colour depth..I could go on) and FC2 is well over 2 years old. Blimey I've updated my GFX card twice since FC2 came out, and it looked good on my old 280GTX. (Have yet to try it on my 580 which only arrived yesterday)
After the dull "on rails" of FFXIII I shouldn't have been suprised that they bothed FFXIV...but I was (doh!)
FFXIV now runs fine on my system 60fps everything on max - though as I only look at it for ten minutes after each major patch that's not saying much. The game is still total junk
As for Elemental WOM - I wish they would sort out the basic stuff. CTD at end of turn (or unregistered crash if you play in windowed mode)
It's been there since day one, lots of people have it.
EWOM could be so good. But 4x award this year goes to Distant Worlds and the expansion. I simply can't get my head around this game being a bedroom "one guy" operation. It's staggering. More depth than Gal Civ 2 (by miiillles now the expansion is out).
As for the rest LOVE Civ 5 and Red Dead Redemption (now playing the extra "zombie" stuff) Though to be fair played RD on the PS3 (is it even out on PC yet?). Napoleon TW made up for the poor Empire
Patrician 4 added nothing but graphics - but still is a decent game. Starcraft 2 is good enough (again - gameplay is almost identical to original)
My other fave's have mostly been independant games on the PC Scourge of War (Gettysberg) CastleVox, Virtual City, Rail Controller 1 and 2, Battlefield Academy, Battles from the Bulge (expensive though) Hearts of Iron III (with semper fi - otherwise it's pretty crud), Anno 1404,SoaSE (and expansions), Demigod, Kings Bounty (and expansions).
In fact I'm here or at Matrix games 90% of the time for new games. Rarely buy anything from a shop any more.
Scritty
I don't see how Civ V doesn't run away with this award. Patched up Civ IV is arguably the best game of all time. Civ V had massive expectations and it's terrible. My disappointment with Elemental pales compared to my disappointment with Civ V.
What is it about Civ 5 you don't like.
I've been playing since Civilization (on the Amiga) and I love 5.
Is it the stacking issue?
Love to know why people don't like it. I think it's the second best Civ ever (after 2) 4 was the weakest IMO
Civ5's problem is the AI. I didn't have trouble winning the game even on the hardest difficulty. It kind of ruins the game. Though I never really play that many rounds of 4x games. Finished Civ5 three times and will probably not play it until some cool mod is released.
You are certainly entitled to your opinion, just like I am mine. I do want to point out you are comparing a game that is trying to be realistic looking to a game that isn't. The background, the characters models in FFXIV are stunning. Heck even the hair is worth noting. I don't know how XIV will look on PS3, but on PC... it looks like they put 90% of their money into graphics and told the rest of the group to make do.
For me personally Elemental is definitely the most disappointing game of 2010. On release for me it was completely broken, and while the stability and some mechanics have improved, it just still doesn't have that gaming magic I was hoping for.
I really hope the first expansion will change that, otherwise after that I think I will basically just give up on the game all together.
I don't think I'm going to give up on this game anytime soon. It has potential to become an all-time classic. It's not like the concept or the engine isn't up to par. It's just the game itself isn't there yet. Not by a long shot.
I can't argue with that. I bought the special edition as well (Argghhh)
I don't think I'm going to give up on this game anytime soon. It has potential to become an all-time classic. It's not like the concept or the engine isn't up to par. It's just the game itself isn't there yet. Not by a long shot
Me neither - a fantasy 4x is something I've waited a long time for. So suprised at Stardock for releasing it in such a poor state. I love SoaSE, GalCiv I and II, Demigod etc - I thought this would be a "no brainer" decision for a great game.
I hope it will one day - at the moment I can't even play for more than 40 minutes without it crashing (2 different PC's -different OS's etc)
So for disappointment - Yeah -this might be number 1 - even at patch 1,1
If they did a full GFX version of Dwarf Fortress..now that I WOULD play. (I can't look at the normal game without getting a headache after about 20 minutes - never had that with a game before)
If they ever did a full GFX version of Dwarf Fortress, it would be preceded by such laws-of-physics-breaking hype that when it really was released, it would probably cause a world depression and world war.
Fortunately, now living in a world with a DF version with graphics, everything would be awesome anyway.
The review of Civ 5 was spot on, imo. Myself I couldn't quite put a finger on why I got bored of that game so quickly, but I think he's right that stupid combat AI had a lot to do with it.
df has some huge problems with storage..... or at least every time i play it, i get into serious trouble. like... i have a billion idle haulers, lots of nearby empty food piles.. and kitchens/etc clogged up with miasma because everything's rotting away in there! too many food piles i guess..
too much micromanagement needed.
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